Javier Milei, Argentina’s newly elected president, has proposed a bill to cut the funding for the country’s National Film Institute and Audiovisual Arts (INCAA) and its public film schools (ENERC), sparking protests and petitions from the film community. The Libertarian president built his campaign on cutting federal spending to decrease the country’s high inflation rates. 

Over 300 directors, actors, and producers worldwide are protesting against the bill. Academy award winners Pedro Almodóvar (The Skin I Live In) and Alejandro González Iñárritu (The Revenant), and Cannes winners Aki Kaurismäki and brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne have been leading the charge. Signatures have been racking up on a petition created by the group. Signees include Gael García Bernal, Kelly Reichardt, Olivier Assayas, and other respected members of the global film community. 

Federal funding for the INCAA amounts to only $9 million annually and only covers a part of the budget for most Argentinian films. Despite the small budget, it primarily serves to attract financial support from other countries, so cutting these funds could be devastating. Thousands of jobs, foreign investments, and cultural representation are at stake. Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles said, “Argentine cinema is a source of admiration and inspiration worldwide. For the excellence of its directors, its passionate actors, its exceptional artisans. As Martin Scorsese says, culture is not a commodity, but a necessity. It belongs to a country, not to its political parties.”

Cine Argentino Unido, the newly formed coalition working against the bill, released a statement that said:

“Argentina has built a vibrant, heterogeneous, and dynamic film industry from its beginnings. Since 1944, the country has had state institutions that regulate and promote film activity using the resources generated by audiovisual exploitation. Today, the film industry involves tens of thousands of quality jobs and trains professionals who collaborate in co-productions around the world. Year after year, Argentine cinema is present at the Cannes, Berlin, San Sebastián, and Venice festivals, among many others, offering the world our perspective, our stories, and our identity. None of this would have been possible without public policies which promote culture and without the Film Law that provides specific funds for the activity. Argentine cinema is a thriving industry that generates thousands of jobs, exports content, and brings foreign investments into the country. The implementation of this bill will have a devastating, incalculable, and irreparable effect on the entire culture and on national sovereignty, especially for workers who depend on cultural industries, resulting in thousands of new unemployed,”

There is hope that the proposal, or parts of it, will be rejected by Congress. Milei’s political party holds only 47 out of the 329 seats in Congress, and prominent members of the film community are already engaged in discussions with members of Congress, according to filmmaker Celine Murga.